Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, I am just barrowing them for my own amusement.  I am not making any money off of this story, and I will put the characters back where they belong safe and sound.  Well, relatively unharmed anyway.

A/N: This is my first LOTR fic, and like many others, Elrond, Elladan, Elrohir, and Estel = FAMILY!  In my AU versions, I have written Estel's mother out.  Just pretend that she died along with Arathron.  Thank you for reading my fic.  Yes, I know the first chapter is short but more will be coming out soon.  I also want to thank my beta enb2004 for helping me make this fic possible.  If you get the chance and you are a Harry Potter fan, check out her fic Acceptance, and my fic Harry Potter and the Legend of the Phoenix.  Thank you.

Estel was weary, cold, hungry, in pain, and wet, yet he could not be happier.  Finally, after eight long months with the rangers, he was going home to Imladris.  He hadn't seen his brothers or his father in such a long time.  Even though eight months wasn't that long a time, it had felt like forever to the young human.  Never had he been away from his family for such a long amount of time, and he desperately missed them.

"Soon I'll reach the river.  Soon I'll be home and out of this wet, miserable rain and sleet.  Damn!  It's freezing out here, and I just had to lose my cloak, pack, and horse in that orc skirmish.  Just great," Estel thought miserably. 

Estel truly didn't fell to good despite being so close to home.  The skirmish with the orcs had left him with some nasty injuries that he had no time to heal, as his pack had been lost in the skirmish, and his healing supplies were in the pack.  He would have attempted to heal himself with the herbs that grew in the wild, but most of them were useless due to the amount of rain that had fallen during the past several days.  Estel also believed he was going to be coming down with a cold, if he wasn't already.  He knew from past experience that if he was out in the rain for too long, he had a nasty tendency to get a very bad chest cold.  Estel groaned at the thought. 

"Ada is going to kill me for coming home sick and injured again.  Oh well.  Tis better to receive a lecture about taking care of myself in the nice dry halls of Imladris then to be out here in the freezing rain," Estel thought.

Slowly, Estel made process but the weather was a rather large hindrance in getting home before he caught a cold.

Just as he reached the river that would lead him strait into Imladris, he suddenly began to cough violently.

"Just great.  Really, truly wonderful.  How in Ardra am I going to hide this from Ada?  Oh well, no point in worrying about it just yet.  First things first, I have got to cross this river," Estel thought gloomily.  With a weary sigh, he proceeded to walk into the river and wade his way across. 

Half way through the river, though, a sudden violent wind caught Estel off guard, and he missed his footing and slipped on one of the many sharp rocks that lined the river.  Before Estel could even begin to brace himself for the impact, he fell face first, and hit his head on one of the sharp rocks.

Estel cried out softly in pain and tried to raise his head but fell back down.  Stars began to dance in front of his eyesight, and black started to creep into the corners of his vision.  Fighting it all the way, Estel fell unconscious while the river washed him downstream and onto the banks of the river, where the temperature was dropping more and more steadily.

Translations:

Ardra: Middle Earth

Ada: dad/daddy